This reminded me for whatever reason of a tiny plastic witch decoration we had when I was a kid. She was stirring a small cauldron with a black plastic spoon. She and her pot were attached to a square wooden base with some fake plastic leaves and a tiny plastic pumpkin. Every year when it came out of the Halloween box we'd all want to hold it and examine it. The pumpkin became thin from being poked and pressed. One day my dad set it down on the end table and a long whisp of cotton was rising out of the cauldron. He told us to smell it. He had put a dab of Vicks VapoRub in the middle of the blob of cotton. A stinky and potent witch's brew. We all went nuts laughing and sniffing and screaming "Ewwwwwwwww!!!!" And we kept going back for more.Image source.

A London council has banned under-18s from buying eggs and flour in the run-up to Halloween in an effort to curb anti-social behaviour.Police will also seize Halloween masks from older children so they can be identified in the case of any criminal activity. CCTV vans will be sent to trouble hot-spots both as a deterrent and as a means of bringing any necessary prosecutions.

Residents will be able to display a poster with the message "No Trick or Treat Here". Police forces across the UK are inundated with complaints over anti-social trick-or-treat activities. These include a growing trend in the Halloween practice of throwing eggs and flour at homes.

While China has a rich tradition of ghosts and ghouls of its own, Halloween is a non-event for most Chinese, who hold their own commemoration for the dead during the Qingming festival or Tomb-Sweeping Day usually marked in April. But the creators of the "Shanghai Nightmare" attraction, 26-year-old American-Chinese Gan Quan and his girlfriend Xu Jiali, said it's about time Chinese got a taste of Halloween.